Is this the last QWERTY-equipped BlackBerry phone?

Last month, BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen, promised “one last in-house phone” equipped with a QWERTY keyboard. That phone has been long rumored as the BlackBerry Mercury and it looks like we may have just got our first look at it in the wild.

The images above appeared on Weibo recently and look to show the last of the three BlackBerry Android devices scheduled for 2016, with the first two being the DTEK50 and DTEK60. While we can’t rule out the possibility of a clone or fake, they certainly look legit and fit well with what we know BlackBerry is working on.

The BlackBerry-Android experiment has been a fascinating one. From the vastly overpriced Priv to the grossly under-rated DTEK60, BlackBerry has proven it can still innovate, even on another platform. But progress invariably means some things must be left behind, like the iconic QWERTY keyboard of BlackBerry lore.

While the demise of the iconic physical keyboard will be a sad day for aging businessmen and stubborn diplomats the world over, if the rumors about the Mercury are anything to go by BlackBerry may well be going out with a bang.

The benchmarked BlackBerry Mercury specs are decidedly mid-range, but performance has never been the primary allure of a BlackBerry phone. As the last of its line, this is one time we’re happy to see the Mercury rising.

Would you buy the Mercury? Will you miss the QWERTY keyboard?